Every Monday, we ask small businesses key questions. Here we speak to Andrew Bruce, managing director of HRI|Munro Architecture, which has offices in Inverness and Thurso.
A keen fan of the arts and music, he tells us how to solve the energy price crisis and that he was in tears when Leonard Cohen and Christine McVie died.
How and why did you start in business?
Originally from Derbyshire, I’ve always loved design and qualified as an architect in Edinburgh in the 1970s.
Starting my career in Edinburgh and Fife, I then moved to the Outer Hebrides with my wife, Lee, and our young family. After almost nine years there we moved to Dingwall, in 1989, chasing my ambition, and I opened an Inverness office for a large national practice in 1997.
Having acquired that office in 1999, I now create architecture throughout the Highlands and Islands.
How is your business managing rapidly rising costs, and what should government do to help?
Building costs are skyrocketing. Different approaches to specification and procurement are required and we’re discussing this with our public agency clients.
Energy pricing is a political issue – decouple low renewables costs from gas. Re-join the EU single market ASAP, Brexit is and always was a disaster.
How did you get to where you are today?
By working collaboratively, engaging in a wide variety of building types and development values, and contributing to my profession.
Architects have to be creative and somewhat independent thinkers to find creative solutions to complex problems, and that mindset is perfect for starting and growing businesses too.
Who helped you?
Lee, retired architects Hector MacDonald and Colin Munro, whose practices HRI incorporated as we grew and who offered wise advice.
And most of all my co-director and good friend, Mark Williams. We are totally different and complement each other beautifully.
Finally, the practice has always benefited from the responsive advice, guidance and support services offered by the Federation of Small Businesses.
What’s the best piece of advice you ever had?
First, my father, a chartered engineer, always said if you are privileged enough to become a member of a professional institution, always give more back to it than you expect to receive.
Second, keep it simple. True simplicity is the holy grail of creative design, and just as elusive.
What is your biggest mistake?
Nothing is ever wasted – “mistakes” often turn out to be distinct advantages. I’m constantly learning from everything I do.
What is your greatest achievement?
Aside from helping design many award-winning buildings I also focus on the public arts and contributing to my profession.
Over the years I’ve been a founder of An Lanntair art centre in Stornoway, launched the Highlands and Islands Awards for Architecture, founded the Inverness design review panel and chaired or sponsored many arts organisations.
If you were in power in government what would you change?
Times are hard and uncertain for the country. Given a magic wand, I would establish a universal basic income, an equitable form of government for everyone, and an economy and society based on social justice and quality of life rather than endless “economic growth” – an unsustainable concept that’s killing the planet.
What do you still hope to achieve?
Having just celebrated our Inverness office’s 25th anniversary, we are now growing and repositioning our business for the future with a new Thurso office and the addition of some new senior staff.
We’ve just launched the HRI|Munro student prize for architectural technology and HRI Invites lecture series.
We’re also working on renewable energy projects and research into how old buildings can be retrofitted to reduce energy usage, while I continue to strive for architectural simplicity.
What do you do to relax?
I’m a huge fan of the arts – be it architecture, music, visual arts or literature – and culture in all its forms.
Rediscovering live music after the pandemic restrictions is a joy. I love the Ullapool and Hebridean book festivals, and also bringing new artists to public view in our office’s upstairs gallery.
What are you currently reading, listening to or glued to on TV?
I enjoy biographies and diarists as diverse as Henry “Chips” Channon and Michael Palin, and read new Ian McEwen novels as soon as they’re published.
HRIMunro sponsors The Mahler players, who specialise in Mahler and Wagner, but I also love Keith Jarrett’s fantastic improvised jazz and was in tears when Leonard Cohen and Christine McVie died.
On TV, Adam Curtis’ world-embracing documentaries are educational and fascinating, and Lee and I are great fans of Scandi noir.
What do you waste your money on?
Architects try not to waste money but we do enjoy ourselves. Lee and I have always bought art and books, and post-pandemic restrictions we’re revisiting the theatre, concerts and cinema.
What’s the first thing you do when you get up in the morning?
Rise early, drink water, kefir and coffee, walk the dog – enjoying the beautiful Moray Firth sunrises from Fortrose harbour – and read my daily newspaper before work.
What do you drive and dream of driving?
An early convert to electric vehicles, I’m going to replace my BMW I3 with a Polestar2 in 2023 – microprocessor supplies permitting. I’d love a Rover P6 2000, a classic car that my father drove.
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